


work it out

by ollie_cannoli



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Anyways, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, NO BUT ARMIN IS SO FINE OMG, No I dont take criticism, OHH MY GOD HE IS SO FINEE, Slow Burn, agressive barking, am i funny? is this funny? or am i milking it?, anyway, armin brainrot, armin is one of the characters who definitely doesnt have shit stains, armin talkign about the outside world to you, but yes armin falls in love with you after you have been admiring him from afar, can we please gush about armin in the comments i need to talk about him to somebody, did i even spell that right, eventual smut maybe?? idk, expect typos, god he's so perfect, him and marco get together in here yujh, i hate people that baby him tho like- huh, idk what to tag this, imagine him doing the rasputin trend, is this enough tags? should i keep going? idk what im doing, jean is so obviously gay pls, losing it, my little war criminal uwu, ooh remember when people on tiktok said he got turned on while talking about the outside world PLSS, putting this on hold for a bit bc i am so swamped with hw lol it isnt funny anymore, the human body is so gross and not at the same time pls, uh jean will be your bestie, yeah - Freeform, yes there will be scenes with a bit of nudity bc idk its funny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:02:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29159340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ollie_cannoli/pseuds/ollie_cannoli
Summary: falling in love while training to be in the military is the least responsible thing you've done your whole life. you know the dangers that come with getting too close with other people, and yet you can't stop yourself from doing so when he's just so damn perfect. you want to get close to him, and you start doing whatever it takes to be noticed by him. armin arlert, a sweet boy who is also training to be in the scouts, is shy upon first meeting him, but quick to befriend others. you think you're invisible to him until he offers you a seat at his table during dinner. what started out as admiring from afar quickly turns into more.
Relationships: Armin Arlert/Reader





	work it out

**Author's Note:**

> i did not proofread this. not even once. i typed and then decided to publish i am so sorry.  
> also this chapter is really just building relationships w characters so its boring ik, but the next chapter will hopefully be a lot better

a week into training, you had already found yourself eating dinner alone. you didn't want to get too close to people. not in an antisocial way, but as an extra precaution. you don't know who will be going in to the same regiment and you don't know who could die out on the field. it would be better to save yourself the emotional trauma than be hurt as hell when people die. death is inevitable. everybody dies someday, people die every day. but for the scouts, they willingly put their lives on the line on a regular basis, none of them knowing for certain if they will make it back.

you knew one day you would be a scout. that was the whole reason for you being here now, of course. the one thing you've ever felt absolutely certain of was becoming a scout. your parents didn't know. not when you left, at least. they were against the idea of you leaving the walls, even if just for a minute. they were perfectly content sitting behind walls like livestock. not you, though. you wanted to rid the world of the titans and live free. so, once you were old enough, you wrote a long note for your parents explaining your goal and reason for leaving and left.

you weren't sorry for leaving them. not even a little. they may have been your parents, but they didn't do much for you anyway besides bringing you into this god forsaken world. now that you were free of them, you could focus on your one goal. you trained tirelessly, spending nights doing extra workouts and waking up early to do even more. two months passed by and you still did the extra workouts. nobody approached you, nobody even looked at you. you noticed everybody though.

you watched as jeager argued with people and regularly embarrassed himself by failing to do simple things after saying he'd kill every last titan. humorous as he was, you almost pitied him. he watched his mother as she was devoured by a titan and saw both the colossal and armored titan break the walls. you were lucky, though. you hadn't seen the titans break the wall or even seen a titan your whole life. you'd been sheltered your whole life. anyway, he was shooting for the scouts and always has been according to other trainees.

you watched as ackerman trained hard and defended eren in all his endeavors. you almost cringed when you saw her cling to him like a leach, but after overhearing that she was his adopted sister, you quickly understood the situation. at that point you respected her and even trained to be as strong as her. she had a sort of natural strength about her that pushed her far beyond other trainees limits that you admired. she was going to follow jeager wherever he went, that much was clear.

you watched arlert while he studies hard and answered questions nobody knew the answers to. how he stuck by jaeger and ackerman despite his calmer demeanor. he didn't seem like the type of person who would have gotten along with the two of them, but after watching them for a week or so, you easily picked up on their dynamic. jeager and ackerman were his protectors. it seemed ackerman was doing a lot of protecting. despite seeming frail and (for lack of a better term) weak, he did pretty decently during training, besides combat. he clearly excelled in the classroom, though, which made you wonder which regiment he was aiming for. maybe he would follow his friends, but his skill set may have better suited other regiments.

you watched kirstein as he shamelessly boasted about his odm skills. sure, he was one of the best, but he talked a lot. he was obnoxious, but you had a feeling he had a humble upbringing. he was clearly infatuated with ackerman, or at least acted like he was. he did fairly good in combat and the classroom, but he was truly good very gifted when it came to using the odm gear. you'd even considered asking for advice before quickly shooting that idea down. he was hoping to join the military police for a safe life. you couldn't blame him, though.

you noticed as bott quickly became friends with kirstein, despite his much louder personality. he wanted to work for the king himself, though you wondered how much work he was truly willing to put in for a dream that big. he seemed very kind and humble. he did just as good in the classroom as arlert did, maybe even better sometimes.

other people you'd noticed were braun, hoover, and leonhart. all three of them came from the same place, apparently. braun was like an older brother to everybody, always offering advice and had an inviting air about him. he didn't give away where he intended to go. hoover was quiet and kept to himself. he seemed to be nervous about a lot of things too, making you wonder why he decided to train for the military in the first place. he stuck to braun like glue. leonhart, on the other hand, was quiet and reserved. she didn't talk to anybody, not even the two boys she came with despite knowing them prior to enlisting. she was aiming for the military police as far as you knew. she had the same strength ackerman did, impressing you regularly.

you'd also not failed to notice the hilarious duo springer and blouse. while hilarious, they didn't do so well in the classroom and often goofed around during combat training. despite those two factors, they did pretty good in odm training. not as good as kirstein and ackerman, but pretty good compared to others. you thought it was a miracle neither of them had been killed by shadis, even though you were only two months into training. after blouse had her punishment given to her after her poor excuse of an introduction, you were certain her and springer would have been learned not to test shadis' patience, but they continued to goof around. they definitely brought a more relaxed air when they were around, though. you had a hard time focusing with those two around, as they were always cracking jokes. you couldn't tell where they wanted to end up and hadn't heard anything from other trainees either.

two months later, you had observed other trainees and picked up on their habits and skills and such. it wasn't hard to do. people watching had always been interesting. though, maybe it was becoming too interesting these past few months. subconsciously, you had already grown attached to others, but you'd never admit it. despite that, you still sat alone at all your meals and trained alone unless you were paired with another, though usually they didn't want much to do with you. you were lonely, but only because you felt like you knew all these people and they failed to notice your existence. you had all these stories to tell, but nobody to tell them to. and while you were lonely, you reminded yourself it would be a bad idea to get too attached to these people. attachments were dangerous, you reminded yourself.

another two months pass and at this point, you still had yet to make any friends. you wondered if people knew to stay away from you or if you were really just that intimidating. or if nobody was interested, but you chose to rule that one out. you're fucking amazing and you know it, surely other people do, too. finally, you couldn't take it and had decided to introduce yourself to somebody. jean kirstein. while he was definitely somebody you deemed difficult to approach, you desperately needed some extra tips on using the odm gear. you weren't going to use him of course, you genuinely were interested in him. he just had a skill set that also intrigued you. how was it that he was so good at it, anyway?

with a tray of stale food i hand, you confidently walked to jean's table, sitting across from him after setting your food down. he turned from marco and smiled cockily. "well, if it isn't the unapproachable hard-ass. couldn't take it anymore, huh? what's your name, anyway?"

"i'm going to pretend you didn't just insult me. and it's (y/n) (l/n). let's be... friends." you said, trying to sound friendly.

he seemed taken aback for a moment before quickly smirking again. "right. why is it you are just now coming to me? we're six month's in to training. what took you so long?"

"i didn't want to get too close to people. based off the regiment i know i want to go into, it would be better for me to not get attached before i die... or them." you said after a while of debating if you should actually tell him. "i'm kind of new... to this friendship thing. i figured you would be the best person to approach."

he laughed obnoxiously. "you were right to think i'm the best person to approach. but as far as your attachment issue thing goes, you should really let that go. you're going to get close to people eventually, and if they die, at least you'll have the other people to comfort you during the hard times. that's the point of friendship. isn't that right, marco?"

jean had turned to look at the boy sitting next to him, and so you did as well. marco was a handsome boy with short hair and freckles sprinkled across his cheeks. "you're right, jean. sometimes friendship is the only thing people need in the world to keep going. without it, you'll have nobody to turn to when you truly need it."

nodding your head, you turned back to jean, your eyes flicking between the both of them. "so? will you guys be my friends?"

jean looked to marco and gave him a look. he was probably just trying to seem playful, but he was really putting you through hell by not giving a straight answer right away. he jokingly pretended like he needed to actually think about it before turning to you with his signature smile. "sure."

"thank you." you smiled. "i've got your back from now on. you too, marco."

the both of them smiled at you, and the rest of the meal was filled with laughter.

~~~

for the next few weeks, jean and marco had helped you to improve on some skills you lacked, and you helped them where you excelled. it was wonderful. you felt like you were finally shaping up to be the soldier you wanted to be. not only that, but jean and marco had helped you to open up to others and build relationships with some of the other trainees. sasha and connie were quick to accept you into their little duo, already including you in some of their jokes and pranks.

jean had introduced you to reiner and bertolt. reiner seemed friendly and instantly warmed up to you, but bertolt seemed to be more shy and nervous than anything. reiner tried introducing you to annie, but she was sort of awkward and uncoordinated like you in social situations, so it didn't quite work out. reiner assured you she was much more friendly once you get to know her, but you figured she didn't really want to get to know you anyway. which was a shame, you would have loved to learn some of her combat techniques sometime.

soon enough, you were talking to eren and mikasa, but armin was nowhere to be found. eren was enthusiastic about that which he believes in, bringing a refreshing sort of energy similar to jeans in a weird way. mikasa was always calm and collected, reminding you of a sister you never had. you quickly grew attached to her, even asking if she would workout with you early in the mornings and late at nights since you already know she does it alone. she agreed, and the both of you bonded through that.

by being close to mikasa, you soon grew close to eren as well. despite that, jean was still your first friend and you stuck by him all the time, eating every meal with him and sometimes even sneaking into the boys cabins just to talk for a bit. he hadn't said it, but watching you grow from the sort of recluse, shut-in girl to the girl everybody knew one way or another was impressive, and he was proud of you in a way.

despite all your new relationships and friends, you still hadn't managed to introduce yourself to armin. you'd heard many stories from mikasa and eren, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. they say he's usually in the library, reading some book, if he wasn't found during breaks. you always saw him eating with mikasa and eren, and had even locked eyes with him once, but you still have yet to have a conversation with him.

you'd told jean many times about how you were interested in him and wanted to meet him, just to see if everything you thought about him was true or if he really was as polite as people say. jean assured you that you would get a chance to talk to him eventually, but things didn't look so good with the way everything was playing out. you had almost began suspecting he was avoiding you. you couldn't blame him if he was, you didn't necessarily make the best first impressions, what with you constantly brushing people off and avoiding conversation as best as possible. he probably thought you were rude or a bitch.

one day during dinner, however, as you walked with the flimsy tray of food, when you felt a sudden tug on your sleeve, you stopped in your tracks.

turning to see who had called you, you were surprised to find that armin was looking at you, eyes filled with wonder. "hi. i'm sorry for not introducing myself sooner, i've been caught up in my studies. i wanted to be sure i would be prepared for the next few months. i've heard so much about you... anyway, would you like to have dinner with me?"

at jeans table, jean was shaking marco's arm excitedly. "look, look, look- it's happening! they're finally meeting!" he whisper shouted.

marco smiled. "why is that such a big deal?"

"because now she can stop talking to me about him." jean sighed.

marco laughed, patting jeans shoulder. "if she was talking about him before, and he turns out to be everything she thought he would be, you realize she might just talk about him MORE, right?"

"WHAT??" jean shouted, surprising everybody in the mess hall before they awkwardly went back to their conversations. "damn it. i have to think of a way to make her feel the way i've felt these past few months."

laughing again, marco rested his head on his hand. "just talk to her about somebody you're interested in."

seeing marco looking at him like that, jean had to force himself not to blush, though he was sure his efforts were fruitless. "uhh... right. who am i interested in again?"

"mikasa, of course. or have you already moved on?" marco teased.


End file.
